The Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves kicked off the 2023-24 slate of NBA preseason action on Thursday afternoon with their first contest in Abu Dhabi. While it is still a preseason outing, the top players from each team did see the court for some time during this one, and for the Mavs, it sounds like the fans wanted to see more of Kyrie Irving than they did.

Irving was part of the Mavs starting lineup, and while he played 13 minutes, he didn't play particularly well during his time on the floor (2 PTS, 2 AST, 1 REB, 1/6 FGM), which makes sense considering he is shaking off some rust after a long offseason. The fans in Abu Dhabi clearly relished the opportunity to get to see some NBA-caliber action in person, and began chanting for Irving to get back in the game midway through the third quarter.

Given the unprecedented nature of this trip to Abu Dhabi, it was clear that each team would give their best players some runtime on the floor in order to give the fans what they were looking for. Irving had a fairly muted performance in front of these fans, so it's not too surprising that they wanted to see a bit more of him on the floor in this one.

Despite the pleas from these fans, Irving didn't see the court again in the second half, which is due to Jason Kidd wanting to manage his best players, while also giving the guys at the bottom of a depth chart a chance to show what they can do. The good news for fans is that there is going to be another game on Saturday between these two squads, although there's a decent chance Irving won't play much more in that game than he did in this one.